take-home = "(of information) to be remembered"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Dec 14, 2006, at 8:52 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> Anchor to guest: "And your take-home message for parents is...?"
>
>   Have noticed this a lot in recent months.

i don't see why you find this puzzling; this is just "take-home",
defined by the OED as
   (orig. U.S.), that may be taken away home

the OED has "take-home pay" from 1943, then:
   "take-home lesson" (1968, from The Double Helix), entirely
parallel to the example above
   "take-home trade" (1973, extended sense 'trade in goods that can
be taken home')
   "take-home sales" (1973)
   "take-home exam" (1976, but much older than that, since i've been
giving take-home exams, called that, since 1965)

arnold

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